The Physician Spotlight series highlights members of the Doximity network. This week, we interviewed Dr. Danette Taylor, Service Chief of Neurology at Henry Ford Hospitals, a US News & World Report top-ranked hospital in Neurology and Neuroscience.
Q: Why did you decide to pursue a career in medicine, specifically neurology and psychiatry?
A: When I was in medical school, I thought the brain was so fascinating. There were so much that we just didn’t understand and so many possible changes that could occur in the brain that would impact patients’ abilities to think, to reason, to move, to function. And to put all of that together, I felt a little bit like a detective, and it was fascinating to me and very rewarding. And I determined that I wanted to be a neurologist, as I continued on in my medical career.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges that you face day-to-day as a physician?
A: Some of the biggest challenges are time-based. There’s not enough time to spend with patients to go over the vast amount of information that we have to share with them in a very limited amount of time. There are not enough resources to get everybody all of the medications that they need, or do all of the testing that we want to do to identify what’s happening. There’s also not enough knowledge to understand exactly the cause of certain neurodegenerative processes that people face every day like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, and Huntington’s disease. There are so many things that we just don’t understand.
Q: How do you use Doximity?
A: I read the medical news digest to keep up with things on a very rapid basis. It’s great to be able to look through my email and see a curated newsletter of all the stories or research that’s important for me to know that week.
Within the Doximity app itself, the Dialer feature is terrific because I can use that to contact my patients from anywhere, and display the hospital’s phone number on the caller ID. It’s important that patients see a phone number they recognize and trust.
The very foundation of a doctor-patient relationship and documentation of care is communication, and the importance of the ability to communicate with patients can’t be underestimated or understated in any way, shape, or form.
For me, to be able to talk with my patients face-to-face during a visit is certainly beneficial, but then to be able to follow up with that individual because of a test that I’ve ordered, or to confirm that they’re doing well with a new medication I may have prescribed, or just to confirm that they don’t have any followup questions– this follow up communication between doctors and patients is very important.
Q: Can you think of a time when Dialer has been a saving grace in connecting with a patient?
A: While I use the Dialer feature frequently, I recall one specific time that Doximity Dialer was hugely beneficial. I had a patient that I saw who was an urgent add-on. It was somebody that I was typically following infrequently because they had a very slowly progressive condition, but her daughter brought her into me to be seen urgently because she was having some acute changes.
The patient was scheduled to see her primary care physician later that day, but to be proactive, I ordered some testing so that her primary care doctor could be ahead of the game. The test results came back that the patient’s status changes were probably related to her blood sugar level of almost 800.
I had left the office early for a meeting, but needed to reach her daughter in an urgent manner. I used Doximity Dialer to reach out to her daughter that afternoon to say, “Don’t go to the patient’s primary care physician appointment. Take your mom to the hospital right away.” We were able to get the patient the care that she needed in a timely manner; I’m not sure that I would have been as successful in getting through to the patient’s daughter without Doximity Dialer.
I think that Doximity is an amazing revolutionary platform, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how much more innovation you can come up with.
Illustration by Yi-Min Chun